Greetings to our Councilmembers,
We are pleased that the time has come for a review of making Santa Cruz Ave. a 2-way street again. We spent some time reading Staff Report 25-090-CC this week.
As in earlier notes to the council we remain firmly in favor of reopening the 600 block to 2-way vehicular traffic. We are against the continued closure of eastbound Santa Cruz Ave. in this block because of the effect of the closure on eastbound traffic to and across El Camino Real on both Oak Grove and Menlo Avenues as well as the inconvenience in reaching the northeastern quadrant of Downtown Menlo Park from West Menlo and Atherton for shopping.
Also, there are still safety issues with the bike-only lane along that block. Just yesterday we saw a young person riding their e-bike at high speed in the wrong direction in that lane past Left Bank and Bistro Vida.
In our minds the question is whether Option 1 or Option 2 is the preferred solution.
Option 2 is the way to go. Due to the troublesome lack of parking in Parking Lots 7 and 8 during late afternoon and early evening hours any increase in available street parking along or near those blocks is a big improvement so we find ourselves in favor of abandoning the seldom-utilized Picnic Seating area and gaining some scarce parking slots there.
Should there be interest and a need to continue the small but yet-underutilized Bon Marche Farmers Market on Wednesdays then the “Walgreens" parking spaces could be coned off for just that one afternoon and evening per week. The Bon Marche vendor tents can be oriented such that they all open toward the sidewalk for safety, of course.
We appreciate the Council’s willingness to review this topic.
We look forward to your professional deliberations and a hearing of a favorable decision.
Best regards,
Rich Wipfler
1045 Valparaiso Ave.
Menlo Park
